So I' ve clocked up about 21 hours of play time so far, and I' m still nowhere into the game yet! However I' ve been so engrossed that I' ve not had time to post much! I wanna shout about the game though, it' s so awesome. IMO maybe even more awesomer(?) than Oblivion!

I' ve got up to a point where I' ve seen some pretty brilliant sequences in the game, out on the free open plains as well as in claustrophobic undergrounds.

The sequences have very little scripting too, in that the devs will lure you to a huge ' arena' eg an underground base with an objective, dot enemies and hazards around, then let the AI, physics and your own curiousity play itself out. But its so well crafted that it still ' feels' scripted ie you feel part of a bigger event rather than just wandering around and shooting stuff... its hard to explain!

Not everything has to be an event either. In most games, if something sticks out, the devs are shouting at you to go there and achieve some objective. In STALKER some buidings look to have a purpose, but when exlplored have nothing in them. It' s like IRL if you found an abandoned hut in the middle of the woods, it' d stick out, but if you explored it, you' d probably just find mud and rotting wood too. I think its clever and realistic. But then sometimes you do find something interesting.

But yeah, in short I think it' s lived up to its hype. It' s not for everyone, as its not the most polished experience, theres no hand holding, you need a fair amount of patience and the game' s ruthless at times.

However, it has the most atmosphere, the best attention to detail that I' ve seen in a long time. It has a style that is unique, but harks back to the good old days of Deus Ex and System Shock 2. Oblivion was awesome, but I' m enjoying STALKER even more! So much so that I only had time to get a few screencaps! And here they are...

That looks awesome! Shame it didn' t hit consoles though.

I reckon its a shame as well. Although I dont know how well it would sell on next-gen consoles. It' d definitely broaden the market though.

Heh, I found a mildly amusing cached version of an old news piece from eurogamer though.

http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:qHa0Y-4Z3mEJ:www.eurogamer.net/article.php%3Farticle_id%3D55652+STALKER+consoles&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=uk

Is this Fear all over again?

Nah, FEAR was fun, but it was essentially just a traditional run and gun FPS with slo-mo and the girl from Ring.

This is a free-roam sandbox FP-RPG like Oblivion, just with guns and set in the Ukraine. Granted the tense horror bits do play a big part though.

There was one bit where I found some abandoned underground bunker in the middle of nowhere. There was nothing in it, but as I was reaching the other end of it, there were random noises, and I chance encountered this fiend started messing with my mind and making the screen go all funny. I couldn' t fight it, so I legged it. I' ve never seen anything like it anywhere else in the game, and I reckon it just lives there!

I found the game to be quite similair to Trespasser for some reason. A cool thought and a cool game with great athmosphere, but buggy as hell and not executed good enough to be called great, perhaps not even good.

Though I have yet to play as many hours as you have, so I might change my mind.

Still, I find that this game is a step in the right direction, and I' m actually looking forward to a STALKER 2, if it will ever happen. Perhaps then they will be able to evolve and polish the many great ideas that they' ve had and turn it to be a " genuine" Great game!

Also, I do not agree to this game being better than Oblivion, however I do get the feeling that this is Oblivion of FPS games.

Edit:

Also to make very clear, the Atmosphere in this game is Fantastic!

I' ve not played Trespasser. I was just watching the 1up show and they' ve got a bit on STALKER at the end... and yea they were talking about the same thing.

http://www.1up.com/do/minisite?cId=3145462

One guy was almost completely repelled by the bugginess and lack of polish, but the other guy hadnt really been effected by all that and even enjoyed the rawness of it.

I' m more like the second guy I guess. But the game definitely picks up at certain points past the beginning of the game, its worth persevering with!

The game intrigues me but meh, I don' t know if I want to get it. I rather get the oblivion expansion.

The only thing thats annoying me at the moment is how you have to headshot absolutely everyone!

It takes far too many bullets to take down an enemy with bodyshots. You have to shoot a guy with no armour about 10 times to kill him or even incapacitate him, but only 1 headshot.

So if you' re conserving ammo, which you' re always doing, you need to get in close and pick him off. So thats something that jars against the overall realistic feel to the game.

Had a couple of crashes to desktop too. Still enjoying it though.